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Gertrude Stein
| birth_place = Allegheny, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | death_date = July | death_place = Neuilly-sur-Seine, France | occupation = writer, poet | nationality = American | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = Modernist literature | notableworks = | signature = Gertrude Stein- Autograph.svg | influences = Leo Stein, William James, Pablo Picasso, Alice B. Toklas | influenced = Hemingway, Ashbery, William H. Gass, Giannina Braschi, Palmer, Paul Bowles, Thornton Wilder, Language poets }} Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 - July 27, 1946) was a modernist American poet, who is often viewed as a principal leader and catalyst of the modernist movement in American literature. Life Overview Stein became the figurehead for the entire "Lost Generation" (a term she coined) of American expatriate artists and writers who lived in France during the period between the First and Second World Wars. Her influence, both directly as a writer and indirectly as a patron and supporter of her fellow artists, was inestimable in the development of American literature in the earlier half of the 20th century. Among those whom Stein took under her wing were novelists such as Ernest Hemingway, poets such as Ezra Pound, and artists such as Pablo Picasso. By bringing a number of disaffected artists and writers together within her large social circle, Stein directly assisted in the rapid development of new and experimental ideas in both literature and the visual arts. Moreover, Stein's fiction, which is among the most abstract and formally innovative of all Modernist writing, would directly inspire a number of her contemporaries to continue their own experiments with form and content that would collectively revolutionize the landscape of 20th-century literature. Although Stein's works are not as famous or as widely taught as those of some of her colleagues and contemporaries, she is nevertheless acknowledged as a seminal influence in the history of 20th-century American fiction. Youth and education Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and lived there until the age of 3, when she and her German-Jewish family moved first to Vienna and then to Paris. She returned to America with her family in 1878, settling in Oakland, California. After graduating from college in 1897, Stein spent the summer in Woods Hole, Massachusetts studying embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory. This was followed by 2 years at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1901, she left Johns Hopkins without obtaining a degree. Photo of Gertrude Stein at Johns Hopkins Medical School Retrieved May 10, 2007. , 1906]] In France In 1902, Stein moved to France during the height of artistic creativity gathering in Montparnasse. From 1903 to 1912, she lived in Paris, where she met her life-long companion, Alice B. Toklas. During most of her life, Gertrude, like her siblings, lived off a stipend from her father's estate, which her brother Michael very capably stewarded and invested. After the success of her memoir "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" in the mid-1930s, Stein became rich in her own right. When Britain declared war on Germany in World War I, Stein and Toklas were visiting Alfred North Whitehead in England. Following the war, Stein began holding regular salons at her home at 27 Rue de Fleurus, which attracted many of the great artists and writers living in Paris at that time, including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Henri Matisse, Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson, and Guillaume Apollinaire. Around this time Stein coined the term "Lost Generation" for the generation of writers and artists living in the aftermath of World War I with its powerful assault on the hopes of many who who had thought history was progressing toward a freer, fairer, and more just society. At the personal level, Stein was extremely charming, eloquent, and cheerful, and she developed her salon gatherings into a large and highly productive social circle. World War II and after With the outbreak of World War II, the salons came to an end, and Stein and Toklas moved to a country home that they had rented for many years previously in Bilignin, Ain, in the Rhône-Alpes region. Referred to only as "Americans" by their neighbors, the Jewish Gertrude and Alice were able to escape persecution because of their friendship with Bernard Faÿ, a collaborator of the Vichy regime with connections to the Gestapo. After the war, Stein's status in Paris grew when many young American soldiers visited her. She died at the age of 72 from stomach cancer in Neuilly-sur-Seine on July 27, 1946, and was interred in Paris in the Père Lachaise cemetery. In an account by Toklas,Janet Malcom, “Someone Says Yes to It: Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and ‘The Making of the Americans,’” New Yorker, June 13–20, 2005, 148–165. when Stein was being wheeled into the operating room for surgery on her stomach, she asked Toklas, "What is the answer?" When Toklas did not answer, Stein said, "In that case, what is the question?" Writing After moving to Paris in 1903, Stein started to write in earnest: novels, plays, stories, libretti, and poems. Increasingly, she developed her own highly idiosyncratic, playful, occasionally repetitive, and sometimes humorous style. Typical quotes are: :"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." :"Out of kindness comes redness and out of rudeness comes rapid same question, out of an eye comes research, out of selection comes painful cattle." :"The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a vegetable." These stream-of-consciousness experiments, rhythmical word-paintings or "portraits," were designed to evoke "the excitingness of pure being" and can be seen as an answer to cubism in literature. Many of the experimental works such as Tender Buttons have since been interpreted by critics as a feminist reworking of patriarchal language. These works were loved by the avant-garde, but mainstream success initially remained elusive. It is important not to underrate Stein's works immediately because of their seeming idiosyncrasies. As critic Judy Grahn says of Stein's work, "the whole field of the canvas is important." Rather than a "figure/ground" relationship, "Stein in her work with words used the entire text as a field in which every element mattered as much as any other." It is a subjective relationship that includes more than one viewpoint, and to quote Stein: "The important thing is that you must have deep down as the deepest thing in you a sense of equality."Judy Grahn, Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A Selected Anthology with Essays by Judy Grahn (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1989), 4. ISBN 0895943808 Though Stein influenced authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Richard Wright, her work has often been misunderstood. Composer Constant Lambert (1936) naively compares Stravinsky's choice of, "the drabbest and least significant phrases," in L'Histoire du Soldat to Gertrude Stein's in "Helen Furr and Georgine Skeene" (1922), specifically: "Everyday they were gay there, they were regularly gay there everyday," of which he contends that the, "effect would be equally appreciated by someone with no knowledge of English whatsoever." In 1932, using an accessible style to accommodate the ordinary reading public, she wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; the book would become her first best-seller. Despite the title, it was really her own autobiography. Publications *''Tender Buttons: Objects, food, rooms. New York: Claire Marie, 1914. *Geography and Plays'' (poems & plays). Boston: Four Seas, 1922. *''Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia''. Florence, Italy: Privately printed, 1912. *''Have They Attacked Mary, He Giggled''. West Chester, Pa.: Horace F. Temple, 1917. * The Making of Americans, Being A History of A Family's Progress Paris: Contact Editions, 1925; New York: A. & C. Boni, 1926. *''Descriptions of Literature'' Englewood, N.J.: George Platt Lynes & Adlai Harbeck, 1926. *''Composition as Explanation'' London: Leonard & Virginia Wolf at the Hogarth Press, 1926. *''A Book Concluding with As a Wife Has a Cow, A Love Story''. Paris: Editions de la Galerie Simon, 1926; Barton, Millerton & Berlin: Something Else Press, 1973. *''An Elucidation'' Paris: transition, 1927. *''A Village Are You Ready Yet Not Yet, A Play in Four Acts'' Paris: Editions de la Galerie Simon, 1928. *''Useful Knowledge''. New York: Payson & Clarke, 1928. *''An Acquaintance with Description'' (London: Seizin Press, 1929). *''Lucy Church Amiably''. Paris: Plain Edition, 1930; New York: Something Else Press, 1969. * Dix Portraits (English text with French translations by Georges Hugnet and Virgil Thomson). Paris: Libraire Gallimard, 1930. *''Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship Faded, Written on a Poem by Georges Hugnet''. Paris: Plain Edition, 1931. *''How to Write . Paris: Plain Edition, 1931; Barton: Something Else Press, 1973. Plays *''Operas and Plays. Paris: Plain Edition, 1932. * The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1933. *''Four Saints in Three Acts, An Opera To Be Sung''. New York: Random House, 1934. *''Portraits and Prayers'' New York: Random House, 1934. *''Lectures in America'' New York: Random House, 1935. *''Narration: Four Lectures . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. *''The Geographical History of America or The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind. New York: Random House, 1936. *''Is Dead . N. p.: Joyous Guard Press, 1937. * ''Everybody's Autobiography. New York: Random House, 1937. *''A Wedding Bouquet, Ballet Music by Lord Berners, Words By Gertrude Stein''. London: J. & W. Chester, 1938. * Picasso (English translation From Stein’s french version by Alice B. Toklas). New York: Scribners, 1939. * The World is Round. New York: William R. Scott, 1939. *''Paris France''. New York: Scribners, 1940. *''What Are Masterpieces''. California: Conference Press, 1940; expanded edition, New York: Pitman, 1970. *''ida A Novel . New York: Random House, 1941. *''The First Reader & Three Plays (Dublin & London: Maurice Fridberg, 1946; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948). *''Wars I Have Seen'' (New York: Random House, 1945; enlarged edition, London: Batsford, 1945). *''Brewsie and Willie'' (New York: Random House, 1946). *''In Savoy, or Yes Is for a Very Young Man'' (A Play of the Resistance in France) (London: Pushkin, 1946). Short fiction *''Three Lives: Stories of The Good Anna, Melanctha, and The Gentle Lena. New York: Grafton Press, 1909. *Matisse, Picasso, and Gertrude Stein, with two shorter stories. Paris: Plain Edition, 1933; Barton, Berlin & Millerton: Something Else Press, 1972. Collected editions *Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein'' (edited by Carl Van Vechten). New York: Random House, 1946. *''Gertrude Stein: Writings, 1903-1932''. (2 volumes), New York: Library of America, 1998. Stein, Gertrude and Ulla E. Dydo (Editor). A Stein Reader (edited by Ulla E. Dydo). Northwestern University Press, 1993. *''Gertrude Stein: Selections'' (edited by [[Joan Retallack]). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008. *''Literary Cubism: Geography and plays: Selected works of Gertrude Stein'' (edited by Laura Bonds & Shawn Connors). Travelling Press, 2011. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Gertrude Stein 1874-1946, Poetry Foundation. Web, Mar. 7, 2015. See also * List of U.S. poets References * Behrens, Roy R. ''COOK BOOK: Gertrude Stein, William Cook and Le Corbusier. Dysart, IA: Bobolink Books, 2005. ISBN 0971324417 * Burns, Edward, ed. The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913–1946. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. ISBN 0231063083 * Grahn, Judy. Really Reading Gertrude Stein: A Selected Anthology with Essays by Judy Grahn. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1989. ISBN 0895943808 * Rice, William, Edward Burns, and Ulla E. Dydo. The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder. Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN 0300067747 * Stein, Gertrude. Gertrude Stein on Picasso. New York: W. W. Norton, 1970. ISBN 087140513X * Malcom, Janet, “Gertrude Stein's War.” New Yorker, June 2, 2003, 58–81. * Toklas, Alice B., and Edward Burns. Staying on Alone: Letters of Alice B. Toklas. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982. ISBN 0871401312 *Truong, Monique. The Book of Salt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. A novel about a young Vietnamese cook who worked in Stein's Montparnasse-household. Notes External links ;Poems * "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso" * Gertrude Stein profile & 11 poems at the Academy of American Poets * Gertrude Stein 1874-1946 at the Poetry Foundation. *Gertrude Stein at PoemHunter (33 poems) ;Audio / video *UbuWeb: Gertrude Stein featuring a reading of If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Picasso and A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson. *Art of the States: Becoming Becoming Gertrude Text-sound piece featuring excerpt from The Making of Americans. Retrieved May 11, 2007. *Gertrude Stein at YouTube ;Books * *Gertrude Stein at Amazon.com ;About *Gertrude Stein in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Gertrude Stein at NNDB *Gertrude Stein biography at the European Graduate School *Gertrude Stein biography at Biography.com * Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) at Modern American Poetry. * The World of Gertrude Stein, extensive biography site. * Gertrude Stein Links Retrieved May 11, 2007 * The Work of Gertrude Stein by William Carlos Williams. Retrieved May 11, 2007. *"Impossible Poetry? On Gertrude Stein" at the Academy of American Poets * Interview with Paul Bowles on Gertrude Stein Retrieved May 11, 2007. *''This article uses Creative Commons text from the'' New World Encyclopedia. Category:Jewish women writers Category:Jewish American writers Category:American autobiographers Category:Jewish feminists Category:American feminists Category:Feminist writers Category:Jewish poets Category:American poets Category:Opera librettists Category:Modern art Category:Modernist drama, theatre and performance Category:Modernist women writers Category:Cubism Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Lesbian writers Category:LGBT feminists Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:LGBT Jews Category:American expatriates in France Category:French Jews Category:American expatriates in Austria Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:American writers of German descent Category:People from Oakland, California Category:Writers from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:Cancer deaths in France Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:1874 births Category:1946 deaths Category:Writers and poets Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:Lost Generation poets